Power assignment in multi-relay adaptive DF cooperative networks

We investigate a power assignment scheme in multi-relay adaptive decode-and-forward (DF) cooperative-diversity networks over non-identical Rayleigh fading channels, that integrates truncated automatic repeat-request (ARQ) at the link layer. At the cooperative level, only the reliable relays participate in the retransmission phase if necessary. In this paper, we aim at maximizing the system throughput via power optimization and we show that this can be done by minimizing the symbol-error rate (SER) of the retransmission. We derive the closed- form expressions for the exact SER of the multi-relay adaptive DF over non-identical Rayleigh fading channels as well as the asymptotic bounds for the SER. Results show that the analytical bounds for the SER corroborate with the simulated SER at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and maximum throughput is achieved through optimal power allocated at the source and various reliable relays.